File boxes don't remember last location

M

Morgan19

Registered
Hopefully I can describe this so it makes sense...

A couple days ago my Mac started acting funny in file boxes– by file box I mean the dialog box that pops open when you do File > Open, or File > Save As, etc. It defaults to my users\documents folder every single time I do one of those actions, regardless of what I'd done before.

So let's say I'm working on a document, and want to save it. I'll do an option+S to save it, the window comes up in users\documents, I navigate to where I want to save it, and save. Now the next time I go to "save as" the document, before this week that dialog box would've started in the location I last saved the file– now, it defaults back to users\documents every single time. Needless to say, this is incredibly annoying and adds precious time to my process every time I want to open or save a file.

I've tested it and just about all of my programs seem to be having that problem: Word, Photoshop, Indesign, etc. I can't think of anything I've done this week to suddenly make it act up like that. Can anyone think of why it'd be doing this, and what I might do so it remembers last locations again?

(I'm currently running OS 10.4.9.)

Thanks,
m19
 
Does anyone have any ideas? I'd be more than happy to give more information if the problem isn't clear– I'd really like to analyze why this is happening so I can fix it.

m19
 
Well then first maybe deleting the /YourHarDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist . This might help, Good Luck.
 
Thanks for the tip, but it didn't work. I actually trashed that preference along with other programs' (Photoshop and Indesign, as a start) but still have the problem: opened a file, saved it in the directory, then both another "save as" and "open" start me out in the Documents folder.

This is *really* aggravating.

Your suggestion about the Finder preferences made me think, though– after a bit more poking around I've discovered that it isn't in fact every program having the problem. Dreamweaver seems to remember where I last was fine; Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign do not. I'm sure there are others that are working OK, but maybe that little bit of info helps?

m19
 
So mostly Adobe and Macromedia programs have it occur and others do not?
And you trashed or removed all Adobe, Macromedia and Finder preferences?

At least Adobe stores files in additional locations. /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Adobe and possibly other folder like Macromedia under the same Application Support folder, could be related to this.

Drag those folders to your desktop while these applications are not running, then launch the applications. Does it still occur?
 
I found a simple solution that may help. Try to save something in a program that is have trouble. Do a 'Save As ...' , When the save pops-up click on the arrow to the right of the dialog box to expand it to a more extensive save-as box. This should hold in the program every-time you save.
 
I'd tried the various suggestions posted and so far nothing's made a difference (but I do appreciate the guidance), but I think I've discovered yet another piece of the puzzle...

First off, in Photoshop I opened a file off our Design drive (a network drive all our designers have access to) then did a Save As, which is how I normally work. It defaulted back to the users\documents folder when I did the Save As, like it's been doing problematically. But next, I opened a file sitting on my desktop instead, then did a Save As: this time, it remembered that I was looking at the desktop instead of starting in the users\documents folder. So that worked like it's supposed to!

What this tells me is that it's not really program-related at all, but is rather a function of how my Mac is interacting with the network drive: for some reason, my programs suddenly don't remember it as where I've been, if I'm working on a file from it. Why they worked fine two weeks ago and now not, I don't know... It seemed like it was program-related because sometimes it would work normally (when i was working off my desktop) and sometimes it wouldn't (when I was working on the network drive) but I wasn't aware of that pattern.

Opening or saving files locally from my computer works flawlessly as it should: it remembers the last folder I was in every time, so long as I don't access the network drive. So that being the case, that gives me a definite direction to pursue. I don't suppose anyone is familiar with any issues remembering folders on a (PC-based) networked drive?

m19
 
Morgan19 said:
Does anyone have any ideas? I'd be more than happy to give more information if the problem isn't clear– I'd really like to analyze why this is happening so I can fix it.

m19
Click to expand...

If you use an MAC OS server, it can remember that position (checked with safari and appleworks). So maybe it does not remember the location for non-APPLE servers.

In the old days you could specify the behavior for what you requested, but i could not find the option in the control panes, so no luck there.


Good luck, Kees
 
The weird thing is, it was working fine and remembering last positions in the dialog boxes up to about a month or two ago. I don't think it's simply the fact that it's a Window shared drive (which it is) since that's the case, but unfortunately I couldn't say what's changed on said server to cause this type of behavior.

We are having another issue with Indesign not treating linked graphics properly, so I wonder if the two are related. Someone on the Adobe board suggested mounting the shared drive as AFP rather than SMB (we're doing SMB now). I'm checking with our server guy on that, but could that connection mode be possibly part of the problem?

m19
 
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